Gild (The Plated Prisoner 1)

Then he pounces, making it across the room in five long strides.

He’s on her in an instant, crowding over her on the bed. But just when I think he’s going to kiss her, he grabs her by the hair instead and spins her around.

She yelps in surprise as she’s placed on her knees, but the noise is smothered out when he presses her face into the mattress.

My heart starts to race, but Rissa tries to recover, tries to meet him on the battlefield and redirect the act. She turns her head, cheek to pillow, back arched, while groping hands squeeze her bared bottom, pinching her pink. “Oh, Captain, I do like a man who knows how to take charge,” she says in an admiring husky tone.

“Quiet,” he snaps.

Not bothering to remove his tunic, he undoes his belt and loosens his leather pants until they drop to his knees where he’s kneeling behind her. Without warning, he roughly thrusts himself into her.

Hand still fisted in her hair, he moves in and out quickly, like the harsh rap of a hammer. Somehow, Rissa doesn’t flinch or shirk. Instead, she manages to arch back, to pretend, to move with him. She lifts her head up from the pillow and braces her hands on the mattress, continuing to play the part.

But when she lets out a moan to appease him, Captain Fane’s mouth twists down, his eyes flash. He jerks her hair and then releases it to wrap his hand around her mouth instead, cutting the noise off. And it becomes apparent then—he’s not interested in her having pleasure, not even pretending to.

He reaches up the length of her body, his fingers curling around her jaw. When a strangled breath escapes her, his hold on her mouth tightens. “I said stay fucking quiet,” he snaps, the thrusts never slowing.

I’m frozen at the door, my back pressed against it like I’m stuck to the wood, ribbons writhing against endless knots.

While darkness retreats outside, it seems to grow in here. The captain uses her, making everything feel dirty, cruel. At least with Midas, even with my constant simmer of jealousy, the act never made me cringe, never made me hurt for them.

But I hurt for Rissa now.

Captain Fane has lost his entranced look, lost his appreciative gaze. With his teeth gritted and hairy body jerking, all Rissa can do is hold on and stay quiet. But he tries to make her slip up, tries to bring the sounds out so that he can hurt her even more.

Every time a noise slips out of her, even when it’s just a shaken breath, he gets rougher, faster, meaner. Until her blue eyes find me, tears brimming over with the brutality of it all.

She might be a saddle, but she’s a royal saddle. And say what you will about Midas, but he’s not a brute. He doesn’t abuse his saddles. Uses them for his pleasure, sure, but he doesn’t get off on violence.

Her pained, teary face kills me, makes my own eyes burn. I can’t stand to keep watching, standing idly by.

“Captain…” I say, taking a step forward. “You’re hurting her.”

He casts a dark look over his shoulder at me, blond hair in greasy tendrils that hang down to his ears. “Yeah, and you’re next, fuck puppet.”

Fear lodges in my stomach like a stone. It scratches all the way around as it rolls, making me go raw. But when he slams into Rissa so hard that her head smacks against the headboard, I find myself taking two more steps, find myself speaking again. “Stop it.”

Surprise crosses both of their faces at my daring. But the captain’s expression is replaced with his promise of punishment—the same one he gave me before.

He pulls out of Rissa suddenly, making her body fall onto the mattress with a heavy slump. And then he’s coming for me, expression dark, brows drawn.

The backdrop of windows behind him shows that the sky is lighter. The black cloak of night is finally peeling away, revealing the approach of a graying dawn. Captain Fane is a dark figure before it, his silhouette shrouded by the impending morning.

As he rounds the bed and stalks closer, my feet want to retreat, but I hold my ground. I tip up my chin.

He disrespected Sail’s body, and now he’s disrespecting Rissa’s. Rissa, who’s willing to do anything to make it through. Rissa, who would’ve performed and taken everything he threw at her like a professional, because that’s how strong she is.

But as I’ve come to find, I have my limits.

“I told you I wanted quiet.”

Captain Fane backhands me before I can even tense.

The blow sends me flying. I can’t catch myself before I slam down onto the wooden floor.

Pain bursts behind my eyes like shattering lanterns, but I don’t have time to recover before a boot is kicked into my ribs. Hard.

I cry out, a strangled cry ripping out of me like an embedded string. It pulls loose, stripped from my throat, leaving the taste of copper in my mouth.